And rather like a dream, than an affurance
That my remembrance warrants: Had I not
Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadit, and more, Miranda: But how is it
That this lives in thy mind? What feet thou elfe
In the dark backward and abysm of time?

If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here,
How thou cam'it here, thou may'ft.

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve years fince, Miranda, twelve years fince; Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A prince of power.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid-thou waft my daughter! and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir

A princess ;-no worse issued .

Mira. O the heavens !

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ?
Or bleffed was't, we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence;
But bleffedly holp hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen' that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio,-

I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should

Be fo perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the figniories it was the first,
And Profpero the prime duke; being fo reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy,

abyfm of time?] i. e.

abyf.. MALONE.

9 A princefs; no worfe iffued.] The old copy reads-And prin cefs. The emendation was proposed by Mr. Steevens. Iued is (as he obferves) defcended. MALONE.

Iteen] is forrow, grief, trouble. STEEVENS,

The

The government I caft upon my brother,
And to my ftate grew ftranger, being tranfported,
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
Doft thou attend me ?

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash for over-topping 3; new created

2

The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd them,

Or else new form'd them: having both the key 4

Of officer and office, fet all hearts i' the ftate

To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was

The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,

And fuck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st not. Mira. O good Sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being fo retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my falfe brother
Awak'd an evil nature and my trust,
Like a good parent 5, did beget of him
A falfehood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,

2-whom to advance, and whom] The old copy has who in both places. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

3 To trash for over-topping;] To trafn, as Dr. Warburton obferves, is to cut away the fuperfluities. This word I have met with in books containing directions for gardeners, published in the time of queen Elizabeth.

Mr. Warton's note, however, on- "trafh for his quick hunting," in the fecond act of Othello, leaves my interpretation of this paflage exceedingly difputable. STEEVENS.

4-both the key] Key in this place feems to fignify the key of a mufical inftrument, by which he fet hearts to tune. JOHNSON.

This doubtless is meant of a key for tuning the harpsichord, fpinnet, or virginal; we call it now a tuning hammer. Sir J. HAWKINS. 5 Like a good parent,] Alluding to the obfervation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a fon below it. Heroum filii noxa. JOHNSON.

But

But what my power might else exa&,—like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lie", he did believe

He was, indeed, the duke; out of the fubftitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative:—Hence his ambition growing,—
Doft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, fir, would cure deafness.

Pro. To have no fcreen between this part he play'd
And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Abfolute Milan: Me, poor man !—my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates,

So dry he was for fway 7, with the king of Naples,
To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend

The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan !)
To moft ignoble stooping.

Mira. O the heavens !

Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother.

Mira. I fhould fin

To think but nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad fons.

Pro. Now the condition.

This king of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu of the premifes,-

Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,

Who baving, unto truth, by telling of it,

Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit bis own lie.] There is perhaps no correlative, to which the word it can with grammatical propriety belong. Lie, however, feems to have been the correlative to which the poet meant to refer, however ungrammatically. STEEVENS.

The old copy has into truth. Corrected by Dr. Warburton. MALONE. 7 So dry be was for fway,] i. e. So thirty. The expreffion, I am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. STEEVENS. 8 To thick but nobly] But in this place fignifies otherwife tban. STEEVENS.

Should

Should prefently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levy'd, one midnight
Fated to the purpofe, did Anthonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i'the dead of darkness,
The minifters for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying felf.

Mira. Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint1,

That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro. Hear a little further.

And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon us; without the which, this story
Were most impertinent.

Mira. Wherefore did they not

That hour deftroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durft not; (So dear the love my people bore me) nor fet

A mark fo bloody on the bufinefs; but

With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;

Bore us fome leagues to fea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcafs of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, fail, nor maft; the very rats
Inftinctively had quit it 3: there they hoift us,
To cry to the fea that roar'd to us; to figh

To the winds, whofe pity, fighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira. Alack! what trouble

Was I then to you!

9— cried out] Perhaps we fhould read-cried on't. STEEVENS. 1-a bint,] Hint is fuggeftion. So, in the beginning speech of the fecond act:

2

our bint of woe

Is common-. STEEVENS.

of a boat,] The old copy reads of a butt. HENLEY.

It was corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

3

Rowe.

had quit it:] Old copy-have quit it. Corrected by Mr. MALONE.

Pro.

Some food we had, and fome frel water, that
A nolle Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his clancy, who being then appointed
Maher of tols deliga, did give as; with

Rich garments, linens, fuis, and necefaries,

Which i ce have teased mach: fo, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From my own library, with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

Mira. Wo I might

But ever fee that man!

Pro. Now, I arife :

Sit

4— Beck's the fea-] To deck the fea, if explained, to honour, adorn, or dignify, is indices ridiculous, but the criginal import of the verb deck is, to cover; fo in fome parts they yet fay deck the table. This fenfe may be borne; but pertars the poet wrote fleck'd, which I think is fill ufed, in ruftick language, of drops falling upon water. JoHNSON. The following paffage in Antony and Cleopatra may countenance the verb deck in its common acceptation:

do not please sharp fate

"To grace it with your forrows."

What is this but decking it with tears? STEEVENT.

To deck, I am told, fignifies in the North, to jprinkle. See Ray's Diet. of North Country words, in verb. to deg, and to deck; and his Diet. of South Country words, in verb. dag. The latter fignifies dew upon the grass; hence dapple-tailed. MALONE.

An undergoing ftomach,] Stomach is pride, ftubborn refolution. So Horace, "gravem Pelide ftomachum." STEEVENS.

who bring then appointed &c.] Such is the old reading. We might better read, ---- he being &c. STEEVENS.

7 Pro. Nenu I arife:] Why does Prospero arife? Or, if he does it to cafe himfell by change of posture, why need he interrupt his narrative to tell his daughter of it? Perhaps there words belong to Miranda,

and we thould read: